


The Room at the End of the World

by Kamary



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Cynical Frisk, Gen, Hard Mode, POV Second Person, Poetry Quoting, Post-No Mercy Route, Post-Pacifist Route, Slightly Less Violent Chara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 09:57:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5043916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamary/pseuds/Kamary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chara was right, you weren’t afraid of anything anymore. You were the true god of this world, even without all those souls. Just a pair of bored gods. It was your right to do whatever you wanted, even destroy this timeline and all potential timelines with your meddling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Room at the End of the World

**Author's Note:**

> I just really like writing Frisk slowly getting detached from their identity as a human okay. I had plans for my second fic to be friendly Frisk Sans fluff, but nope, more Frisk and Chara.

There was a room at the end of the world. Well, not a room, but a space. It had its limits. You could only move so far in one direction. Not that it mattered. It was all the same. It was all black and empty. You weren’t even walking on the ground. Chara had shown you that you don’t have to walk. They float, but you walk, because that gives you a sense of normality.

During the short amount of time you spent with Toriel after your second time saving everyone, you started reading poetry. You only had a few months to do so before it all ended again. Since Toriel still thought you a child (children haven’t lived a thousand lives and died a thousand deaths), she wouldn’t allow you to use the internet. Luckily, human libraries had many books, so it took many resets to actually exhaust all the books they had in the local library. Once you convinced Sans to take you to another city with him and Papyrus to get other books from another library, but Toriel had gotten upset at him, and he didn’t make the same mistake in the next world. You didn’t get how he wasn’t as bored as you. Or maybe he was better at hiding it.

You found yourself enjoying literature about the end of the world. Reading was a skill you retained between worlds, so by this point, you were one of the most well-read creatures in existence, topped only by your partner in crime. They originally liked reading real life crime books, but eventually your tastes blurred. Like many people, one poem always stuck with you. The Hollow Men, a poem you had actually heard when you were a real child.

“ _Those who have crossed_

_With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom_

_Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost_

_Violent souls, but only_

_As the hollow men_

_The stuffed men._ ”

You quoted from the near the beginning, but not the start. The start and the finish made no difference for you, who time unraveled around. Everyone knew the end, how the world would end not with a bang but a whimper, but you had never heard the beginning before. You didn’t understand why. It was your favourite part. It had slowly become one of your favourite things to quote. You were hollow, you were lost. It suited you, so you liked it. Of course, nothing captured what it was really life here, but A for effort.

The sound of something stirring beside you caused you to turn. Chara was always with you here. In the beginning, as soon as you arrived, you would leave. Either that or they would kill you. The world would not accept the two of you and booted you out after a certain amount of time, but the room at the end of the world waited for you. Your determination allowed you to return to the world, to bend it, to force it to become what you wanted.

“You have a rather nasty look in your eyes today,” Chara commented. Not like they could talk. They were even more hollow than you. They tried to stuff themselves full of hate and anger, but even they got bored of killing everyone. Well, of doing that right away. They enjoyed seizing control from you and killing your friends just before the world decided to boot you still. You used to care. You don’t remember when you stopped. It would just start over again, so why care?

“Did I turn into a mirror?” There used to be cruelty in your barbs, now there was only emptiness, followed by the slightest hint of fondness. Without Chara, you’d have fallen apart. Without you, Chara would likely have become mindless. Neither of you would accept that fate, so there was an unspoken bond between the two of you. “I was only thinking about something funny.”

“Funny? I didn’t think you had a sense of humor.” They rolled their eyes, floating up a bit. They stopped caring about the laws of gravity at the end of the world, you cared, so you stay put. “Well, lay it on me. There might still be something worth a laugh.”

“It wasn’t that type of funny, but, if you’d like…. Knock knock.”

“Whose there?”

“Mikey.”

Chara frowned. “You told that one thirty resets ago. It got a real laugh out of Toriel, even though you stole it from Sans. He wasn’t pleased with you stealing his best material.”

You rolled your eyes. “Just say who.”

“Fine, Mikey who? Mikey won’t fit in the door. There, finished it for you.” They rolled onto their back in midair. “I’m tired of these recycled jokes. Maybe I should just stab you again and we can re-experience the world.”

“If we do, let’s make sure to avoid becoming friends with Undyne. That way Asriel-“

“Flowey.” If Chara could feel anything, it was for their brother. They insisted on a separation between the flower and the small monster. You suspected all they felt was a small amount of lingering interest, but you didn’t say it. You didn’t mind Asriel, but these days you preferred Flowey. Asriel just said the same things over and over, Flowey you could drag here.

The room at the end of the world was only for those whose determination allowed them to reset and save. You wondered once if you could force Undyne here, but you think her body and soul were too delicate. Only humans and flowers have ever made it here.

“That way we can bring Flowey into the fold, at least until the next reset. He’ll be a grump about it, but I’m sure he’ll be some fun, if we push the right buttons. It’s good to add something new every once and a while.”

Chara sighed. “That’s not new, but fine, bring him. It’s not like there’s anything truly new we can do.”

You nodded. “We’ve experienced every possibility this world has left for us.”

“Except one.”

You raise a brow and look to them. They looked like they are struggling with the idea of presenting this suggestion in front of you. You wonder what it could be. Maybe they wanted you to throw yourself into the core and scatter like that scientist you heard whispers of sometimes. No, they wouldn’t risk that. That sounded even more boring.

“You could always go back alone. I’ll watch on, I can wait here at the end of the world. And then if you do something new on your own, you can bring the information back. Or don’t come back. We’ve never tried this mix before.”

It was strange for them to be so helpful, but killing people got boring after a while. Even Chara admits it’s lost its thrill. A new path interested you though, reviving some feeling from before you became hollow.

“So you want me to mess with the approved timelines, huh? You know how Sans will get about that. He hates when we try something new.”

The first few times you did, he killed you. Now, as cold and skilled as you were, he’d die before he landed a hit on you. You’d died hundreds of time to him, so it was only fair he did the same. Still, you got no joy from killing him. Killing was always Chara’s thing. You indulged them every once and a while, but still held your softness. You two had a system, every other run, you got to choose the ending. You almost always went for the best. Chara almost always went for the worst, but sometimes you surprised each other.

“Like you’re afraid of him.”

Chara was right, you weren’t afraid of anything anymore. You were the true god of this world, even without all those souls. Just a pair of bored gods. It was your right to do whatever you wanted, even destroy the timeline and all potential timelines with your meddling.

“Fine,” you agree. “And maybe this time, I’ll be able to save you too.”

You’d promised them that a long time again. Maybe after the third time they killed you. By then you stopped fearing their bleeding eyes and their knife. It would just send you back to the beginning again. They had scoffed at the idea then, just as they did now.

“You can’t save demons, Frisk. We’ve been over this.”

“Just watch me, Chara.” You flashed them an empty smile. “If that’s how this is, send me back.”

“You better be able to handle it. If you come back here crying that the monsters are too tough for you, I’ll make your life hell.”

“Too late.”

You laugh hollowly. You laugh, and laugh, and laugh, until the blade comes down and ends you laughter. You relish it, as it’s one of the few things you still feel. The coldness of death enters your body an then there’s the feeling of falling.

\---

You wake a short while later, face down in a field of flowers. You instinctively expect to hear Chara complaining, but there’s no sound. Your body shudders. Suddenly, the world feels a lot more threatening. It’s not the huge change you were hoping for, but it’s still something. A soft smile comes to your lips, gracing your ever blank face. Looks like that poem suits your life once again.

“ _Sightless, unless_

_The eyes reappear_

_As the perpetual star_

_Multifoliate rose_

_Of death's twilight kingdom_

_The hope only_

_Of empty men.”_

**Author's Note:**

> The poem quoted is T.S. Elliot's The Hollow Men.


End file.
